CNET Editors' Rating

The GoodAn alternative take on the spacebar, a removable wrist rest, and Windows 8-specific hot keys give the Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Keyboard a robust set of features for its price.

The BadMushy typing and the oversize spacebar make the Sculpt Comfort Keyboard feel imprecise and cumbersome.

The Bottom LineIt's always worth reexamining technological features we take for granted, but even if you like Microsoft's new approach to the spacebar, the Sculpt Comfort Keyboard needs some streamlining before it merits a recommendation.

6.5 Overall

Installation and interface8.0

Features6.0

Service and support6.0

Review Sections

Having launched a pair of Windows 8 tablet-focusedinput devices, Microsoft has now turned its attention to full-size peripherals. The Sculpt Comfort Keyboard comes equipped with Microsoft's new array of Windows 8-specific buttons and a new take on the familiar spacebar. By bisecting and enlarging the standard spacebar, Microsoft offers you the option to turn the left spacebar key into a dedicated Backspace button. The Backspace functionality is interesting, but the fatter spacebar gives the Sculpt Comfort a clunky feeling. At $59.99, the price is also high enough that you'll definitely want to try it out before you buy. You might check it out if you're looking to adjust your current typing style, but Microsoft's Sculpt Comfort Keyboard feels more like a solution in search of a problem than a must-have input device.

The Sculpt Comfort feels like the La-Z-Boy of PC keyboards. A padded wrist rest juts out about 2.5 inches from the front of the device. A pair of feet under the wrist rest pops out to elevate your wrists off the desk like an ottoman for your hands. The enlarged spacebar keys create an expansive landing spot for your thumbs, and your fingers fall across Microsoft's familiar wavy, curved key alignment (which you may have seen before). Even the key action feels soft, although in a way that's overly mushy.

The problem is that not everyone wants the keyboard equivalent of an easy chair. The spacebar in particular feels unnecessarily large, and it sets the keys far enough back that you feel like you have to stretch to reach them. You can take the wrist rest off, which helps some, but the spacebar still feels like you have to reach over it to type. And compared with generally crisp laptop keyboards and the newer breed of mechanical typing devices, the Sculpt Comfort Keyboard feels a bit like you're typing in mud.

Microsoft's rationale for the large, bisected spacebar comes from its own research. It explains as follows: